Watch the Greatest Players in Golf Compete at the FedEx Cup

The FedEx Cup is a season-long playoff system for professional golfers that was first introduced in 2007 in order to continue generating fan support for the sport even after the last major of the year. The winner is determined based on the number of points they accumulate during the season, and how well they perform in the playoff tournaments at the end of the season. Brandt Snedeker is the reigning champion, while Henrik Stenson is currently leading a field of several charging contenders, led by Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Phil Mickelson.

The tournament is comprised of two parts; the regular season and the playoff tournaments. The regular season consists of 33 contests spread over 36 weeks. It starts in January at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii and ends with the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina. During the regular season, players vie for $35 million in prize money. The playoff round begins after Wyndham. There are four playoff contests, each offering $8 million in prize money. Players receive quintuple the points during the playoffs compared to what is awarded during regular season of play.

During the playoffs, the field is gradually whittled down. The first tournament, the Barclays, opened with 125 qualifiers. The field narrowed down to 100 for the Deutsche Bank Championship, and again down to 70 players for this week’s BMW Championship. The final tournament is the Tour Championship by Coco-Cola, which will be in Atlanta on September 19-22. The remaining 30 players compete for the top prize of the collective season.